For these assignments, you will be required to complete the worksheets according to McDill’s treatment of the structural diagram in 12 Essential Skills of Great Preaching. Each worksheet focuses on

• Make sure sermon ideas are clear and well worded.

• Tell the biblical story with imagination and realism.

• Recognize the usual phases of a narrative.

• Use language that appeals best to the imagination.

• Tell the story as would an eyewitness.

• Look for vivid imagery and narrative in the text.

This assignment involves the retelling of a selected biblical narrative in such a way as to use imaginative and vivid language and narration. Complete the exercise with the following steps:

1. Read the selected biblical narrative several times in different translations. Note here the theological purpose of the story as best as you can discern it.

1. Notice the kinds of language used in the text you are studying:

• Figurative language

• Descriptive language

• Sensate language

• Concrete language

• Specific language

1. Analyze the dynamics of the situation and note them here.

• Setting

• Characters

• Relationships

• Dialogue

• Motives

• Divine involvement

• Surprises

1. Sketch the story by using five phases:

• Situation

• Stress

• Search

• Solution

• (New) Situation

1. Fill in from background research and imagination the phases of the story not described in the text.